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Persephone Hazard
Codename BASHFUL INCENDIARY. An experienced freelance witch, Persephone has chosen the UK as a lifeboat for CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, having judged H.M. occult defenses to be most likely to save at least some people. Partner of Johnny McTavish. History Persephone first came onto the radar at eight years old when she showed up at a refugee camp in Bosnia, mute and without of trace of her family. An incident at the camp showed her occult talent – or something watching over her - when two would-be child rapists got their souls eaten by something. She then went from the camp to the streets of Italy, living hand-to-mouth as a thief and beggar until two years later when a wealthy Italian couple with occult ties of their own adopted her. Her parents arranged for her to attend the best schools and to receive the very best occult tutelage. Six years later they were killed by members of the Red Skull Cult, upon whom Hazard took her own vengeance.God Game Black With her parents’ money and resources she set up the Hazard Network, a highly successful private occult intelligence consultancy. She recruited several other equally-talented agents, and spent the next five years building a stellar reputation as a witch, troubleshooter and problem-solver. She dissolved the Network roughly seven years ago and retired to the UK – a twenty-four year old millionaire with an inherited noble title, a sizable property portfolio, and an eclectic education. To the outside world she’s a socialite who takes an interest in a few charities and is a patroness of certain avant-garde artists. Skills One of the Laundry’s best External Assets. A talented ritual practitioner, with a knack for computational demonology, tradecraft, infiltration, seduction, business affairs, languages. Simply put she’s a terrifyingly smart polymath with the looks of a model (even unaugmented by a glamour), the body of a swimmer, and the soul of something very, very old and powerful. A trained psychic – she can astrally project out of her body, her gift of intuition gives her an inhuman ability to make perfect guesses, and eidetic memory lets her perfectly recall what she’s read. Also knows a word of power that allows her to slow down time. Assets At a minimum she’ll pack a Class III Ward and her personal Athame ritual dagger, which is disguised as a silver crucifix. Also owns a set of ritual robes originally designed for Aleister Crowley, which she keeps in a climate-controlled and warded case in London, but which she can still access by combining her astral projection and eidetic memory skills to visualize herself wearing the robes. In England she has a townhouse that contains a well-equipped occult laboratory and armory, and a private training ground. Appearences First appears in The Apocalypse Codex. Trivia Persephone Hazard is very clearly a direct homage to Modesty BlaiseModesty Blaise, as is indicated by her synonymous codename, BASHFUL INCENDIARY (and also by Charles Stross calling her "Modesty Blaise with magic" http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/07/crib-sheet-the-apocalypse-code.html]). Like Modesty, she was first seen in a refugee camp in the Caucasus region (Bosnia vs Kalyros, Greece), and lived on the streets for a while, before creating a criminal/independent intelligence organization named The Network, running it for several years before marrying into British citizenry and wealth, and after the death of her English husband, "retiring" and moving to England with her knife-wielding sidekick (Johnny McTavish vs Willie Garvin, and then being recruited into working with a British secret service organization and being handled by a man named Gerald (Gerald "Gerry" Lockhart vs. Sir Gerald Tarrant). References Category:Characters Category:External Assets